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Legend of the Cryptids Wiki:Manual of Style
This page outlines the style in which all pages on the Legends of the Cryptids Wiki should be formatted and written in. The aim is to create consistency across the wiki, as well as within articles, and to help create and maintain a high standard for article pages on this wiki. Overview *In general, the Legends of the Cryptids Wiki uses the writing conventions and formatting found in the Wikipedia:Manual of Style. *This page summarizes the most important aspects of Wikipedia's manual, as it applies to this site, with a few modifications unique to this wiki. As such, this page should be used as the main source of reference regarding formatting on the Legends of the Cryptids Wiki. *For more in-depth detail about certain aspects of style, refer to Wikipedia's Manual of Style, but use common sense when applying it to this wiki. *The rules outlined on this page apply only to article pages, and do not apply to comments or discussion. *As a general rule, consistency in formatting and style within an article is considered more important than consistency across the wiki as a whole. Writing Conventions General rules *Writing contained in article pages should be clear, concise and consistent. Use plain English as much as possible, and avoid jargon or overly complex wording. *Style and formatting choices should be consistent within articles. *Full sentences are always preferred. Avoid jot notes and sentence fragments whenever possible. *Use full punctuation. This includes periods, commas, etc. This page will outlines more specific rules, regarding punctuation. Language *This site uses American English as the standard, which is the standard in Legend of the Cryptids. *Slang and other informal styles are not acceptable. Tense *In general, articles should be written in present tense. **Use past tense only with articles relating to past events. Abbreviations *The Legend of the Cryptids Wiki uses Wikipedia's rules for abbreviations, which can be found here. *Letters of acronyms should not be spaced. *When an abbreviation is to be used in an article, give the expression in full at first, followed immediately by the abbreviation in parentheses (round brackets). In the rest of the article the abbreviation can then be used by itself: **e.g. "Energy Drinks" at first usage, then "ED" at second usage. Grammar Possessives *For possessive singular nouns, use an apostrophe followed by an "s". **e.g. Jacob's tree house *For plural nouns ending with an "s", use an apostrophe. **e.g. The jokers' homes. *The possessive "its" has no apostrophe. **e.g. The cat broke its paw. **The following words also lack apostrophes: Hers, ours, yours, theirs, and whose. First-person pronouns *Articles are not opinion pieces. As such, never use the words "I", "my", "us", "our" and "we". **Exceptions include quotes. Second-person pronouns *Third-person is the preferred choice for articles. **e.g. Instead of "you should max out cards before evolving", use "players should max out cards before evolving". *Avoid using the second-person (you, your) in order to avoid ambiguity. Plurals *Use appropriate plurals for words, as found in the English dictionary. **e.g. "Kisses", "laps", "cherries", "oxen" etc. Quotations *In general, try to preserve quotes in their entirety, including spelling and grammar. **Change as little as possible. *If there is a significant error in the quote, indicate it using sic. *e.g. "I drivesic to Mr. Johnson's house." *Avoid linking in quotes. Vocabulary *Avoid contractions as much as possible. *Gender neutral language is preferred. **The exception to this would be contexts in which only one gender is present. *Avoid presumptuous language. **Words such as obviously and clearly should not be used. Formatting Article Titles *Article titles should be concise, should accurately describe what the page is about, and should be consistent with other articles with similar topics. *Titles should be in sentence case, and should not be over capitalized. Exceptions include: **Proper names. ***e.g. Atar, Tyrannical Darklord. **Classes of objects (Ultra Rare). **Non encyclopedic pages such as the Trading Post (disambiguation) and Fire Rare Price Guide. *Use singular form as much as possible. Exceptions include: **Nouns always in plural form. **Category names. **Groups of specific things. ***e.g. List of ultra rares. **Names. *Avoid abbreviations. Use only when the subject is known exclusively as an acronym. (e.g. Use Energy drink, not ED) *Avoid quotation marks. Use only with names which require them. *'Character names containing accents' **Create the ORIGINAL page WITHOUT the accent **Then CHANGE the page name to INCLUDE the accent (use the dropdown next to the 'Edit' box) ***This will allow searches to return a link that when chosen will still bring to the 'correct' page. ***ex: Lucrèce, Upholder of Vows (notice the message telling you that you were redirected) Section Organization *Articles should begin with a lead introductory paragraph without any headings. Each subsequent section should have a header. Exceptions include card pages, which do not contain a lead paragraph. *For full guidelines on writing a lead section, see the Lead section part of Wikipedia's manual of style. Section Headings *Do not refer redundantly to the subject of the article. (i.e. Do not repeat the article title again) *Do not use links. *Headings should be unique within a page. *Do not use images or icons. *Do not include questions. Boldface *Use boldface to highlight article titles used in the lead section. *Table headers and captions should also be in bold. *Avoid boldface for most other instances, including emphasis. Instead, use Italics. Italics *In general, italics should be used when names are present in articles. *Names of works of art should be italicized such as: **Books **Movies **Video games **Television shows **Musicals **Music albums *Italics can also be used for emphasis, such as drawing attention to important words or phrases. Links *In general, links to terms or items should only be made on the first occurrence of the term or item. *Links should be made either to build understanding of the article, link to articles with relevant information, or to explain technical terms or jargon. *Do not link to everyday or common words in which it's expected that the word is understood in the context. Dates and time *Times should be expressed in numbers rather than words. Words like noon and midnight can be used. It is up to user discretion on which is appropriate, but be consistent. *The 12-hour clock is preferred over the 24-hour clock. *All the dates in a given article should have the same format (day-month or month-day). Numbers *Numbers from one to nine should be written as words. *Numbers consisting of two or fewer words should be writtent as numbers. **e.g. 20,000 not "twenty thousand". *Commas should be used the delimit numbers with five or more digits (e.g. 34,000). Numbers with four digits are at the editor's discretion, but be consistent. Miscellaneous *When making invisible comments on article pages, enclose the text you intend to be read only by editors between . For example: . **Information on invisible comments can be found here.